US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing on Sunday for the largest visit by a US diplomat in almost five years in a bid to ease bilateral tensions.
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Even if no one expects much progress due to the many friction points, the idea of initiating a diplomatic thaw and maintaining dialogue to “responsibly manage Sino-US relations,” according to the State Department, remains.
AFP
Because time is running out. Next year is an election date in both the United States and Taiwan. China regards the country as one of its provinces, which it must reunite by force if necessary.
And one little thing can turn things around: the visit of the head of American diplomacy was originally planned for February, following the meeting between American President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last November, on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia.
But it was canceled at the last minute. In question: the overflight of a Chinese balloon over American territory, which Washington described as a “spy plane,” while Beijing assured that it was a meteorological machine that had lost its trajectory.
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Cautious optimism
Antony Blinken wanted to be moderately optimistic ahead of his Washington departure.
This two-day trip aims to “open direct lines of communication to enable our two countries to manage our relationship responsibly, including by addressing specific challenges and misperceptions and avoiding misperceptions,” he said.
“Intense competition requires ongoing diplomacy to ensure there is no confrontation or conflict,” he added, as “the world expects the United States and China to work together.”
Mr Blinken was addressing a press conference alongside his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan.
The latter called Sino-US relations the “challenge of the century”: “The rest of the world will be watching you.” We hope and I think you will be able to work out your differences.
Main point of friction between the two powers: Taiwan. Beijing conducted historic military maneuvers there in August in retaliation for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island as part of a tour of Asia.
Ahead of Blinken’s visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States should “respect China’s core concerns” and work with Beijing.
“The United States must abandon the illusion of acting with China from a position of strength. “China and the United States should develop relations based on mutual respect and equality, and respect their differences,” he said.
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tensions
Mr. Blinken’s visit is the first by a US Secretary of State to China since the October 2018 trip of his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, who was then the mastermind of confrontation strategy with Beijing in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Since then, the Biden administration has stuck to that hard line and gone even further in some areas, including imposing export controls to limit Beijing’s purchase and manufacture of high-end chips “for military applications.”
But she wants to work with China on important issues like climate. Mr Blinken’s visit also comes at a time when part of China is experiencing a heatwave, with 39.4C on Friday in Beijing breaking a new mid-June temperature record.
For Danny Russel, a former senior US State Department official, the visit has a mutual interest: China hopes to avoid new US restrictions on technology and any new support for Taiwan. The United States, on the other hand, wants to prevent any incident that could lead to a military confrontation.
“Mr. Blinken’s brief visit will not solve any of the big problems in US-China relations, nor necessarily the small problems. Nor will it prevent the two parties from pursuing their competing goals,” said Mr. Russel, now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.
“But his visit may well reignite a much-needed face-to-face dialogue and send a signal that the two countries are moving from angry rhetoric at the media to more sober talks behind closed doors.”